Utah ranks 36th in the conservation of private property

Conservation of private land increased more than 50 percent nationwide from 2000 to 2005, but Utah ranks 36th among the states for how much private property has been protected from development through means such as easements, according to a study released Thursday.

The Land Trust Alliance, which represents more than 1,600 land-trust organizations throughout the nation, surveyed over 1,840 land-conservation groups this year, including its member organizations, to complete the study.

About 324,415 acres of private land in Utah have been conserved through a land trust, conservation easement, or by other means, the study showed. That accounts for only 0.62 percent of the land in the state.

Nationwide, a total of 37 million acres of private land has been conserved through those same means — a 54 percent increase since 2000, when the Land Trust did its previous conservation study. A land easement is a legal agreement that limits use and development of private land.

Wendy Fisher, executive director of Utah Open Lands, a nonprofit conservation group, said Thursday that despite Utah's ranking, the state was doing well in terms of conservation, especially considering how little money the Legislature gives to conservation.

Among Utah's neighboring Western states, Colorado has 1.79 million acres of private land under conservation and ranked 18th in the nation in the study. Arizona has 1.07 million acres of private land under conservation and ranked 22nd in the Land Trust survey.

But states such as Colorado give millions of dollars to conservation, according to Fisher. Utah's only conservation fund that uses state money is the LeRay McAllister Critical Land Conservation Fund, which had about $1.4 million in its budget last year, Fisher said.

"Funding is fundamentally an issue" with conservation, she said.

Colorado also offers a state tax credit for property owners who put their land into conservation.

Jim Wyerman, director of communications and development for the Land Trust Alliance, said Thursday that another reason Utah may rank so low nationally is because conservation is generally considered a new concept in the West. States on the East Coast have been conserving land for years, he said.

But the West is catching up. According to the report, Western states had the fastest growth in terms of how many acres were conserved from 2000 to 2005. In 2005, about 43 percent of the total acres conserved by local and regional land trusts in the United States were in the West.

"The report shows a dramatic growth in the West, both in terms of acreage protected and number of land trusts," Wyerman said. The increase, according to Wyerman is the result of "private individuals working voluntarily in their communities to conserve the places they love."

To view a copy of the report, log on to: www.lta.org.

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E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com